Musk's announcement of the planned launch of the giant rocket comes just over two months after he outlined his vision for eventually putting humans on Mars and colonizing the planet.

That project will require an even larger rocket, though. It's called the BFR, or Big Falcon Rocket, which inside the company is nicknamed the "Big F--king Rocket."

SpaceX plans to start building the first of those by the middle of next year, Musk said in late September.

Elon Musk's favorite SpaceX explosions

He wants to land at least two of the spacecraft on Mars in 2022 carrying equipment -- and then ones transporting people in 2024.

In the meantime, the Falcon Heavy is intended to boost the amount of cargo SpaceX can take into space for its customers. The company says it will be able to take into orbit more than twice the payload -- 119,000 pounds -- of its closest rival at a third of the cost.

SpaceX has shaken up the aerospace industry by dramatically slashing costs and developing rockets that can blast out of the atmosphere and then come back down to land on a barge floating in the middle of the ocean.